Vapor // l.h. #Wattys2016

Angst - Chapter 2

"Mate!"

Luke would have been embarrassed to say he hadn't been listening to the conversation going on before him because his mind wandered elsewhere.

"So you're in?" Another voice chimed in.

He didn't like agreeing to just anything, especially due to the fact that he was in a whole other world. Thinking about her. He couldn't admit he was thinking about a girl, what was he in, grade school?

He finally stuttered over his words, "Uh um, yeah sure."

"Really?" Michael teased. The blonde leaned in closer to Luke's face, inquisitively.

Calum and Ashton abandoned the conversation already and were off seeing who could chug beer the fastest, they moved their activity to the kitchen and where they were more or less listening to what Luke answered. Luke swore they had the attention span of a goldfish.

"You know you're agreeing to a party right? Where there'll be actual people? Right?" Shit, Luke hated parties.

"Yeah--um--yeah." Luke couldn't seem to get a completely intelligent sentence out.

Michael mumbled something about hoping there would be loads of weed at the party as he stood up, towering over Luke who was scrunched up on the couch with one earphone in his right ear. Despite the loud strumming of the guitar in his ear, he heard one of his friends in the kitchen throw down a beer can and crush it with his foot.

"Aw no fair!" Calum yelled, it being obvious that he lost the beer chugging contest.

Luke ignored them while Michael laughed almost running into the kitchen to watch the argument that struck up between the older dirty blonde man and the younger brunette one.

"Who's party is it?" Luke didn't know who he directed the question to but Michael popped his head into the living room to answer Luke.

"Some girl Ashton knows. She works at the music shop downtown."

She works at the music shop downtown.

The music shop downtown.

It couldn't be the same girl, the same peculiar girl who didn't give a shit about anything or anyone. Luke psyched himself out the whole ride to her house. Could he just show up her party? He knew for a fact that she didn't like him, nonetheless know him, is it okay to just turn up at her party? Either way he showed up, hesitant to see her, hoping she wouldn't be there. Even though it was her party.

As soon as the four boys got inside, Ashton, Michael and Calum blended into the crowd, leaving Luke to fend for himself. He wasn't used to huge crowds and he quickly realized he didn't like them. As if it wasn't already hard enough to breath with this many people in one room, the air was thick with weed and alcohol. Thick enough that Luke could probably get high and drunk from just standing in the corner. Music blasted through the speakers in the room he was in, too loud to even think about the music being too loud. His lungs tightened to find fresh air somewhere, unfortunately he had to trip over and bump into a few people to find it.

"Do you want a drink?" A soft voice beamed.

Luke almost didn't turn around, in shock that the girl from the music shop was talking to him. But she wasn't. It was a different girl, almost the opposite of the girl from the music shop.

"Yeah?" She pressed.

Luke grimaced, "I don't drink."

"Loosen up!" She shoved some dark liquor towards him he didn't quite recognize. The liquid burned on its way down his throat and into his chest, it was a good burn, something Luke could get used to.